Ten days after the riots started, Jacques “The Beast” Chirac is vowing to get tough and saying that law and order are top priority. Only ten days! Watch out, Jacques! Remember Shakespeare’s warning: Be careful not to “outrun, by violent swiftness, that which we run at, and lose by over-running.” Why, Jacques might not even give the rioters raises in their next round of welfare checks. From CNN:
PARIS, France (CNN) — As arson and violence spreads into regional France and central Paris, French President Jacques Chirac has vowed to crack down on the perpetrators.
“The absolute priority is to reestablish security and public order,” Chirac told the nation Sunday after emerging from an emergency meeting with top members of his Cabinet.
“The law should have the final say, and the republic is determined to be stronger than those who want spread violence and fear. Those people will be apprehended, judged and punished.”
As he spoke, increased security efforts were already visible in the capital, where thousands more police were in the streets and helicopters hovered overhead.
But never fear! Large-scale concessions for the rioters are just around the corner:
Chirac also said he also wants to address what some observers have blamed as the cause — unemployment as high as 50 percent among the nation’s poor immigrant youth and discrimination against them.
An official with the Interior Ministry listed Sunday’s vandalism: in the western city of Nantes, a pre-school was set afire; in the eastern city of Colombe, rocks thrown at two buses hit a 13-month-old child, who was in serious condition; in the northern city of Rouen, a police barricade was set afire and a burning car was pushed into the police station; in Strasbourg, a school was torched near the German border; and a church were set ablaze in the southern fishing town of Sete and another in nearby Lens, Pas de Calais.
As of 11 p.m. (5 p.m. ET), 365 cars had been set ablaze Sunday, and 50 people detained, an Interior Ministry official said. Since October 27, 3,300 cars have been torched, he added.